CAREER

2002–2007

 

Lee picked up only one title in 2002 and 2003, the major achievement being, reaching the final of the 2003 Malaysia Open, his first final of a major tournament, where was defeated by Chen Hong of China.
Lee then secured two titles in 2004, the Malaysia Open and Chinese Taipei Open. Lee gained a spot for 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. In his first Olympics appearance, Lee defeated Ng Wei of Hong Kong in the first round. His journey ended in the second round when he was beaten by Chen Hong.Lee then bagged another two titles in 2005, his second Malaysia Open title and Denmark Open. Lee bagged bronze in his first appearance in the world meet, the 2005 World Championships after losing to eventual winner Taufik Hidayat in the semifinal.
Lee then wrapped up three titles out of six finals in 2006. He was crowned as the winner of Swiss Open,Asian Badminton Championships and his third Malaysia Open title. He also reached the final of the Chinese Taipei Open, Macau Open and Hong Kong Open. In the Malaysia Open, Lee pulled an amazing comeback, as he fought back from 13–20 down in the rubber game and saved eight match points against Lin Dan, and finally wrapped up the game 23–21 to secure the title.Lee helped Malaysia bagged two gold medals in the badminton event for 2006 Commonwealth Games in March, in both men's singles and mixed team event.Lee reaches top spot twice in Badminton World Federation's world rankings in 2006,and he participated in the World Championships as top seed.However, he was upset by Bao Chunlai of China in the quarterfinal despite Lee holds all win in previous meeting. The match was also marred by two controversial line calls that were not in favour of Lee.
The 2007 season saw Lee failing to reach the final for the first time in five years in Malaysia Open, he also suffered an early exit in five competitions afterward and only saw him bounce back and took the Indonesia Open crown, his first title since the 2006 Malaysia Open after reuniting with former coach Misbun Sidek from Li Mao.His performance at the second half of the year was solid, as he achieved three titles in Philippines Open, Japan Open, and French Open. He also managed to reach the final of the China Open and Hong Kong Open, despite his knee injury haunting him on both occasions.Lee won all matches he played in Sudirman Cup in June, despite Malaysia finished only fifth in the tournament.Lee's lowlight of the year was in World Championships, despite the tournament held in front of his home crowd and his solid performance during the second half of the year, he was upset in the third round to Indonesian's Sony Dwi Kuncoro.Lee swipe at chief coach Yap Kim Hock soon after the defeat by claiming that Yap treated him indifferently and was putting pressure in his preparation for the championships.

2008

Lee kicked off year 2008 in success, capturing his fourth Malaysia Open title in five years.However, Lee only captured his second title of the year in Singapore Open,also the final tournament in his pre-Olympic preparations, just after five tournaments he took part, in Korea Open;All England Open;Swiss Open;Badminton Asia Championships;and Thomas Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia where Lee helped Malaysia advanced through to the semifinal where he defeated Lin Dan to give Malaysia a 1–0 lead in its clash with defending champion China. However, Malaysia eventually lost 2–3 due to the defeat of its first doubles team in the vital final match.
In the 2008 Olympic Games, Lee was given a bye in the first round. He cruised to straight game victories over Ronald Susilo in the second round, Kęstutis Navickas in the third round,and Sony Dwi Kuncoro in the quarterfinals.He had a scare in the semifinals where Lee Hyun-il gave him a tough fight, but eventually Chong Wei was able to beat the South Korean and reach the final.However, it was a one-sided final, as Lee was completely outplayed by Lin Dan and salvaged only 20 points, losing 12–21, 8–21.He came second place overall.
Lee participated in several tournaments after the Olympic Games, without capturing a title. He advanced to the finals of the Japan Open, the Macau Open and China Open, but lost to Sony Dwi Kuncoro,Taufik Hidayat,and Lin Dan respectively.In the French Open Lee was eliminated in the semifinals.His coach, Misbun Sidek, cited the pressure of being ranked world number one to explain Lee's recent failure to capture a title.
Lee ended his last Super Series tourney of the year, the Hong Kong Open, with a sudden withdrawal due to a knee injury, conceding a walkover to Germany’s Marc Zwiebler.His last minute withdrawal led to the Chinese media to tag him as the "weakest world number one".The Chinese media also speculated that three factors had hampered Lee's performance since the Olympic Games. They listed these as the stress of the Olympic final, a phobia of Lin Dan due to his lopsided Olympic defeat at Lin's hands, and (echoing Misbun Sidek's conjecture) the pressure of being the world number one.
Despite Lee's recent difficulties in international play, he recorded his seventh consecutive victory at the National Badminton Grand Prix Final in Kedah on December 12, 2008, thus breaking the record of six consecutive titles set by Misbun Sidek.Lee ended the year with a title in the Super Series Masters Finals, however, Lin Dan and China's other top players did not compete, their association citing injuries and fatigue.

2009

Lee started 2009 season with his fifth Malaysia Open title.He failed to secure his first Korea Open and All England Open title despite marching into the final.However, he secured his second title of the year in the Swiss Open which was held in Basel, defeating Lin Dan in straight sets and marking his first win in the finals against the Chinese opponent outside home turf.Next, Lee surprisingly was defeated by Chen Long of China in the India Open.He cited that the loss was due to food poisoning and insisted the authorities to improve the conditions before the World Championships.In May, Lee helped Malaysia reached the semi-finals of the Sudirman Cup, the first in national history, despite his unbeaten record in the tournament being blown by Lin Dan.He bagged another two titles in June, the Indonesia Open,and the Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold,despite failing to defend his Singapore Open title when he was surprised by Nguyen Tien Minh in the second round.
Lee kicks off second half of the season with defeat to Sony Dwi Kuncoro in the world meets,but recovery to won the Macau Open in August.He reached semi-final in the China Masters, but once again failed to beat his all time rivalry Lin Dan.Then, Lee participated in the Japan Open, he only manage into second round of the Open,before won the Hong Kong Open in November.His inconsistency saw him tumbles down in the first round of the China Open.In December, Lee defended his Super Series Masters Finals title, which saw the competition played without the top badminton players in the world.

2010

Lee started the year with the title in all events he took part, his first treble in the Super Series titles. His first ever Korea Open crown,sixth Malaysia Open,and defeated Kenichi Tago to win the oldest and prestigious badminton championship in the world, the All England Open, his first one since he took part in 2004.
Lee participated in the Thomas Cup in his home ground. He managed to defeat Kenichi Tago and take the first point, despite Malaysia's eventual loss (2–3) to Japan.In the quarter finals, he beat Peter Gade, thus helping to secure Malaysia's place in the semi-finals.In the semi finals against China, Lee was defeated by Lin Dan, which ended his 18-match unbeaten record since the start of the year.
In June, Lee participated in Singapore Open losing in the quarter-finals.However, Lee bounced back winning the Indonesia Open,Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold in July,and Macau Open in August.In late August, Lee suffered a shock exit in his another attempt for World Championships, beaten to Taufik Hidayat in the quarterfinals.Misbun cited that the lost was due to the back injury he picked-up after the match against Rajiv Ouseph in third round.On September 26, Lee beat his arch rival Lin Dan in Japan Open, the only title not grab by Chinese player in the tournament.
In October, he helped Malaysia to beat India to defend the gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games mixed team event, then he also successfully defended his gold medal once again in the singles event a few days later.The following month he won a silver medal at the Asian Games. Despite beating reigning World Champion Chen Jin in the semi-final, Lee once again tasted defeat at the hands of his great rival, Lin Dan, in the final.In season end, He bagged the second consecutive Hong Kong Open title,and third consecutive Super Series Master Finals title, where the tournament was held in January 2011.

2011

In January, Lee won his seventh Malaysia Open title by defeating Taufik Hidayat from Indonesia in the final.However, he failed to defend the Korea Open title, the world's first ever million-dollar badminton tournament, after being beaten by Lin Dan from China in three games.In March, Lee cruised into the final of the All England Open for the third consecutive time and retained his title successfully with a convincing straight games victory over Lin Dan, and was praised by prime minister Najib Tun Razak.
On Labour Day, he won his first ever India Open,and also his third consecutive Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold title a week later.Despite the fact that Lee won all his matches he played during the Sudirman Cup, Malaysia's journey ended in quarterfinals, after being beaten by South Korea 2–3.In late June, he won the Indonesia Open, becoming the first non-Indonesian player to complete the hat-trick in the tournament.